English Symphony Orchestra perform Mendelssohn, Schumann and a World Premiere Violin Concerto by Philip Sawyers

Sitkovetsky will be giving the world premiere of Philip Sawyers’ new Violin Concerto, a work he and the ESO are recording for Nimbus earlier in the week. Sawyers has held the “John McCabe Composer-in-Association” chair at the ESO since 2015, and during his time with the orchestra has produced the Violin Concerto, a Trumpet Concerto, a song cycle “Songs of Loss and Regret” premiered during the ESO’s 2015 Elgar Pilgrimage series in Hereford Cathedral, as well as several shorter works including a brass Fanfare and an overture for student musicians. The major work of his tenure was his Third Symphony, hailed at its 2017 premiere in London by the ESO as “a masterpiece” (Classical Source) and released on CD to universal acclaim, including winning the 2017 Gramophone Magazine Critic’s Choice “Best of 2017” award.

“It’s vitally important that we renew the symphonic repertoire or our art form will die,” says Woods, “but we have absolutely no interest in programming pieces which will alienate our audience. Our motto when programming a concert is “something you know you will love and something we know you will love.” Philip’s music has the same qualities that make Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler’s music so powerful and popular- it’s dramatic, it’s beautiful, it’s exciting and it’s rewarding. Philip is a superb violinist himself, so the Violin Concerto is a particularly lovely and affectionate work.” The last major premiere of Sawyers’ tenure as Composer-in-Association will be his new tone poem, The Valley of Vision, inspired by the paintings of Samuel Palmer, which the ESO premiere in Malvern Priory on Wednesday 14th March.